Bals Nègres , Sites of Performance or Spectacle

Abstract This chapter investigates the 2017 controversy surrounding the reopening of a Parisian nightclub formerly known as Le Bal nègre, examining how its name reactivates colonial discourses that commodify Black culture for white consumption. It traces the history of French Caribbean dance halls and highlights how their music and movements, particularly biguine and bèlè, serve as tools of resistance, memory, and epistemology within the African diaspora. By distinguishing between dance-for-the-self and dance-for-others, the chapter critiques the white gaze that reduces Black dance to spectacle, stripping it of its political and cultural power. It also explores how women like Paulette and Jane Nardal and Suzanne Césaire recognize dance as a site of joy, self-knowledge, and resistance against colonial oppression. Finally, the chapter argues that French Caribbean dances must be acknowledged not as exotic entertainment, but as enduring expressions of Black creativity, agency, and cultural memory.